'Student' coach makes the grade

Page Tools

Gordon McLeod is the only National Basketball League coach West Sydney Razorbacks have had in their six seasons, arriving at the fledgling club after five years as head coach at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Five months before his debut season, which coincided with the NBL's 1998 switch from winter to summer, McLeod came to Melbourne to watch Brian Goorjian prepare his South East Melbourne Magic team for a game.

Next week, McLeod and Goorjian go head to head in the NBL grand final, a best-of-five clash between the Razorbacks and Sydney Kings, after both swept their semi-final series.

It is not exactly master versus apprentice because McLeod soaked up information from Lindsay Gaze as well on that Victorian study tour and from longtime friends Phil Smyth and Steve Breheny at the Adelaide 36ers - the Razorbacks made the grand final in 2001-2002, losing the (then best-of-three) series 2-1 to the sharp-shooting 36ers.

But McLeod, 47, talked yesterday of the Goorjian work experience. "Brian's program had been enormously successful and he was very accommodating to help the new franchise out," he said. "Obviously, my coaching career had gone a little bit different direction, with the institute and national junior teams. It was more to get a look at best practices, I suppose."

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Asked to describe his style, McLeod, claiming he was still wet behind the ears by NBL standards, said: "I'm very team-orientated ... the challenge I find is to get the best out of everyone ... to make everyone see the contribution they are making is vitally important and appreciated."

When asked about the 1998 visit, Goorjian said: "I'd forgotten about that."

But he quickly remembered that McLeod, having just left the AIS, was a coach a lot closer to the Magic style than he is now, especially on defence.

"We had a good rapport because Frank Drmic (a Magic player) had been at the AIS under Gordie," Goorjian said. "Now we're arch-enemies in the NBL, but he's a junior coach in the national program and it's important that we're in communication and have a good rapport.

"His NBL style now is more the Gaze, Smyth type of game rather than the Brendan Joyce, Goorjian, (Guy) Molloy style."

McLeod said West Sydney's system had a structure but also gave players freedom to express their flair.

John Rillie, the Razorbacks' elder statesman and the man whose hot hand ensured the team got past Wollongong Hawks in the semi-final, said the biggest change since 1998 in McLeod, who still wears a conservative white shirt and tie courtside, was his approach towards the players.

"He'd been very much used to coaching the younger kids at the AIS," Rillie said yesterday. "From day one to now, he works with people's personalities (better)."

McLeod agreed that he had to change, simply because his AIS job had involved a more holistic approach in developing boys/young men on and off the court.

"Coaching men was a completely different challenge and you had to find a way to do that ... you're learning all the time. You're getting people to work with you; it's not about going out and telling them to do something."

The Razorbacks' response has been to book a second grand final berth in six seasons, the championship series starting with a Kings home game next Wednesday.